A onetime San Jose baker is heading to prison for nine years for orchestrating an auto insurance fraud ring – the longest sentence given to an insurance fraud defendant in Santa Clara County history.

Judge Ron Del Pozzo on Friday also ordered Khai Van Nhin, 41, to pay more than $127,000 in restitution to various insurance companies.

In a plea agreement signed in mid-June, Nhin admitted to heading an insurance fraud ring for at least three years. His plea saved him from going to prison for a maximum term of 24 years if he was convicted.

Defense attorney Ron Rayes was unavailable for immediate comment.

Three years after launching the investigation dubbed “Operation Cashout,” Deputy District Attorney Stan Voyles said the criminal plan was deviously clever.

“Like I said at the sentencing, if he put his ingenuity to good use, Mr. Nhin would be a successful person.”

Nhin was indicted by a grand jury in 2006, along with 27 other defendants. Later, four others were also charged as part of the scam.

Prosecutors said defendants filed 31 phantom car accidents involving about a dozen cars from 2002 to 2005. The fraud went like this: The defendants purchased damaged cars, then filed claims saying the damages occurred when another vehicle forced them off the road and into a guardrail. The claims totaled at least $500,000. Rather than fix the cars, they pocketed the money.

The insurance companies got suspicious and tipped off authorities.

Voyles acknowledged this was a complicated case to unravel, with so many defendants, cars and a language barrier, too. He is proud that all 32 defendants are now accounted for and pleaded guilty.

“Keeping track of who did what with what car, all the different Vietnamese names, and similar kinds of cars, it was very difficult to sort out,” Voyles said. Investigator Dominick Ha helped translate many of the documents from Vietnamese to English.

The case was also hindered when Nhin and a partner fled Silicon Valley.

But in February, Nhin was arrested in Seattle, when a sheriff’s deputy there noticed his car didn’t have a license plate. He was later extradited to Santa Clara County, where he has been living in the Milpitas jail. One of his partners, Mason Son Trans, 38, of San Jose was arrested about the same time in San Jose. Trans pleaded guilty to lesser charges, receiving seven months in prison.

The remaining 30 defendants have all pleaded guilty, with sentences ranging from community service to three years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Urban Organized Auto Fraud Task Force, consisting of investigators from the California Department of Insurance’s Fraud Division, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the California Highway Patrol.

The initial investigation resulted from information from the Special Investigation Units of State Farm, Progressive, AAA, Hudson, Farmers, Safeco, Qestrel, David Morse and Associates, 21st Century, Western General and Western United Insurance Companies.

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